1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle safety system that includes a plurality of electrically actuatable occupant safety devices located at different occupant seating positions in a vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A known vehicle occupant safety system includes a plurality of actuatable safety devices, such as air bag modules or seat belt pretensioners. The safety system also includes a plurality of sensors for sensing crash parameters and occupant condition parameters. The sensors and the actuatable devices are hard wired together along with other vehicle electric circuitry including an electronic control unit (ECU). Upon the occurrence of a vehicle event for which protection of one or more vehicle occupants may be desired, the ECU actuates selected ones of the plurality of safety devices, depending on the sensed parameters.
In this known type of safety system, a separate cabling harness is run from the ECU to each separate safety device. Such a cabling harness can possibly be cut in a vehicle accident, thus disabling the associated safety device. The cabling harnesses can add significant weight to a vehicle. The safety system also requires large and complicated harness connections at the ECU.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,253 describes a vehicle safety system including a crash sensor that energizes an radio frequency (RF) transmitter. The RF transmitter sends an RF signal to one or more RF receivers in the vehicle, each associated with an actuatable safety device. The RF signal actuates all the safety devices simultaneously. The system does not have the capability to actuate only selected ones of a plurality of separate safety devices.